Killer who lured victims via Craigslist gets death penalty

Richard Beasley, convicted of murdering three people and attempting to murder a fourth, addresses the court after his sentencing in his capital murder case on Thursday in Akron, Ohio.

An Ohio street-preacher who lured his murder victims with bogus Craigslist job offers has been sentenced to death by an Akron judge, following the jury’s recommendation.

Richard Beasley, 53, was convicted on March 12 of killing three men and wounding a fourth, all of whom had been given promises of farmhand jobs in southeast Ohio in 2011.

"Richard Beasley is a cold-blooded manipulator with zero regard for human life,” Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said Thursday, according to The Akron Beacon Journal. "Beasley has shown no remorse and would likely still be preying on men who were seeking a better life. It is never a joyous occasion when someone is sentenced to die, but in this case, the death penalty is the most appropriate sentence."

The men who were killed were Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron; David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Va.; and Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon. Beasley shot the men and buried them in shallow graves in the woods.

The man Beasley wounded, Scott Davis, 49, of South Carolina, managed to escape and was a key witness against him. He testified during the trial that when he went to meet Beasley at the alleged job site in Noble County, Ohio, he heard the click of a gun and was shot in the arm.

Davis knocked the weapon aside, ran into the woods, and tipped off authorities, according to The Associated Press.